Hattie's Birthday

Hattie's birthday was June 20th, which was 10 days early.  The night of June 18th I had been up every hour at night with cramping and contractions, however I didn't think anything of it because I'd been having contractions since I was 30 weeks.  Throughout the day on the 19th I continued to have cramping.  At 6:00 that night we were having dinner and I noticed my contractions had become more intense and painful and I decided to time them.  They were only 2-3 minutes apart!  I called the Dr. and she suggested I come in to be assessed.  The boys were a little sad and wanted to come with us, but once they saw Nana and Papa they were fine.  When we got to the hospital about 7:30 I was dilated to 2 and the nurse wasn't really convincing us that I would get to stay.  We had to walk around the maternity floor for an hour and during this time the pain intensified and I had to stop walking and breathe through the contractions.  The walking had done the trick though and I was admitted at 9:30. Around 10:30 I got an epidural, which was a relief.  The Dr. and I discussed how my first 2 epidurals with the boys didn't work well so she was very cautious.  She gave me a big bolus of meds to get things going and I had some relief.  However, they had me laying almost flat on my back, which was extremely uncomfortable.  The nurse suggested we try to sleep, so Jeff went to sleep and I tried to relax.  About 12:30 the pain became really bad again-in my low abdomen.  I couldn't believe I was feeling pain.  I told this to the nurse and she got this strange look on her face.  She said, "You must be progressing quickly."  She checked me and I had dilated to 7.  The pain continued, we woke up Jeff and said, "A baby is going to be born very soon!"  He couldn't believe it and shook off the sleep.  The anesthesiologist came in again and gave me a bolus shot again to help with the pain.  It reduced the amount of time I was in pain but there was still pain.  10 minutes after being a 7, I was a 9.  The Dr. was delivering at Abbott and wouldn't be able to make it in time so another Dr. was called.  Dr. Angelots arrived around 1:50 and I was ready to go.  They got things ready in the room and after 10-20 minutes of pushing Hattie was born at 2:39, just perfect and pink.  She layed on my stomach and I was so delighted all I could do is smile.  I had thought I would cry a lot, but was so relieved to be done with labor and have her that I just got a little choked up.  She had some amniotic fluid she kept coughing up because she it wasn't squeezed out when being born because she was born so quickly.  They had to keep getting it out and she wasn't really crying, so the nurse took her to make sure she was breathing ok-which she was.  She was just perfect and so round and plump.  My placenta and umbilical cord were very big, the Dr. noted, saying I had provided an ideal growing environment.  :)  We stayed in the room for 2 hours then were moved to floor 4 at Southdale Hospital about 4:30 a.m.  We set off the baby stealing alarm by accident.  Jeff and I were on cloud 9 and were so happy and excited there was no way we were going to sleep.

 Chase smiles at me wearing his big brother t-shirt

Touching Hattie's blanekt

 Gazing with love at their new little sister

 Owen gives a kiss

 Chase is unsure what to do

My big boys and my little peanut.  So happy!

 Owen's a big brother!

 Owen holds Hattie first

 Adorable!

 Chase's turn and he's excited!

 My 3 little ones.

 Chase and Hattie

 Owen wanted to touch all of Hattie, he was so amazed by her!

 Jeff went home about 8:00 and brought the boys back.  They were so excited and quietly sneaked into the room.  When I saw their little feet I got choked up and felt so blessed and excited to see Chase and Owen.  They said, "Where's my baby sister?" They hopped right up on my bed to see Hattie.  Owen wanted to kiss her right away!  They saw her in her isolate and were mesmerized.  It was very sweet.